Am I Like Totally Annoying?

Whether it is a thank you card, a newspaper article, dumping a boyfriend through text, or a note- "Will you go out with me?  -Circle Yes or No", written text will never do justice to the power of being present in the moment and hearing or saying it for oneself.  It is nearly impossible to identify the correct emotion behind the text- which can cause all kinds of confusion.  We are emotional beings with creative minds; we rely on how we feel in the moment and what we have experienced in the past to interpret writing or text before us.  I agree with Kekoa Riggin in the fact that texting is one of the greatest communication barriers we have today.  I would, however, like to focus more on the emotional side.

Boys will be Girls

In the YouTube clip "Boys Will Be Girls" there is a part where the boy texts his girlfriend to see if she'd closed the garage door, to which she responds simply, "yes".  The boy explodes and eventually dumps her because he reads into the text as if she could care less about him and is annoyed by him.  I can’t even tell you how many times either I or another has been offended by a text, or super hesitant to respond because of falsely analyzing the emotion behind the text.  I responded to a friend through text who had just gone through a break up by trying to comfort him and liven his spirits.  He took it as sarcasm, texted a few hurtful words to me, and never spoke to me again… all because of a stinking miscommunication of emotion through texting!  

 
I've also found myself freak out when I have just told someone about an exciting event, only to have the response "cool".  When really they felt more COOOLL!!!!!! It can also work to the opposite effect, texting "COOOLLL!!!" when really I could care less.  Texting is often misleading, difficult to interpret, and untrue to our emotions.  Although I am grateful for the easiness of texting, there is something to be said about face to face communication, or at least a phone call; it can save relationships!   

Investment Texting 101

I hate texting. Granted, you probably don't mind because you have a pretty "qwerty" pad that pops up on your screen and a helpful auto correct; I have to hit the 7 button 4 times to type an "s". So texting is actually a particularly frustrating thing for me.

The main problem with texting, in my opinion, is that the integral investment is taken out of both communication and relationship. As this Ace Ventura meme accurately depicts, Texting has eliminated the need for investment in the form of time (or patience) in a relationship. If you don't text me back within a matter of minutes, I will either think 1) You hate me, 2) You're cheating on me, or 3) You're dead (and if you're not dead, you will be when I see you next).

The technology is not the problem. The world is more connected than it ever has been. We can experience more things than any other generation could in seriously convincing ways. The problem is that we take it too far and we believe it too much.

I love that I can quickly send my dad a text to let him know I got an A or to receive a random message from my mom that she loves me. But when I go home to visit and see the people that I care so much about, it almost feels like I would have been better off staying in Provo! We go to parties and events only to spend the whole time texting those who couldn't make it. And we miss out on relationships because we weren't willing to invest a little time with people face-to-face instead of screen-to-screen.

I don't think that texting is bad, but there is a better method to communication than what we are doing with texts. I will always be a fan of oral communication, but, really, any communication with a little bit of investment will go (figuratively) much further than contemporary text messaging will ever go.